The U.S. after the Civil War

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• What were the opposing views of Reconstruction in the wake of the Civil War?

• Who supported these competing views and why?

• Was Reconstruction a success? Why or why not?

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• Lawyer• Statesman• 16th President (1861-1865)• Assassinated April 14, 1865

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• Succeeded Lincoln as President• Southern Democrat

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• Can the US ever truly be united?• Can blacks and whites live together? • Who runs this country?

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• Born in Cologne, Germany• Revolutionary figure in Germany• Public speaker and abolitionist• Hated Southerners• Reported on the effect of the Civil War on the

South at Johnson’s request

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• Physically• Legally and Constitutionally• Emotionally

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• Asserted congressional power over Reconstruction.

• Required that a majority of a seceded state’s white men take a loyalty oath and guarantee back equality.– Sound familiar to anyone?

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• Presidential Theory• Southern Theory• Conquered Provinces Theory• “Forfeited Rights” Theory

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• Southern states never out of the Union• Not “Reconstruction,” but “Restoration.”• Minor modifications• Restore political rights• Appointment of governors

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• War proved secession could not take place therefore they’d never left the union.

• Therefore, no Constitutional question• Everythign should revert back to the way it

was

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• Backed by Thaddeus Stevens and Radical Republicans

• Shattered the Constitution• Southern states subject to international law as

a “conquered province.”

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• Ultimately governed Reconstruction• Secession null and void but emphasized that

governments had rebelled• Because rebellion, they forfeited rights under

the Constitution• Becomes the duty and right of Congress to

ensure republican form of government• Became the theory that underlay the

Reconstruction Act of 1867

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• After 1866 elections, “Radical” meant being committed to destroying slavery and guaranteeing civil rights for African Americans

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• Influential leader of Reconstruction• Served in congress• Abolitionist• Led impeachment forces against Johnson• Sponsored radical plan of Reconstruction

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• Abolistionst• Labor reformer• Speaker• Abandoned practice of law to speak on

social/policital issues

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• Senator• Deeply devoted to cause of civil rights• Joined Stevens as leader of Radicals

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• Freedman’s Bureau Bill of 1866• Civil Rights act of 1866

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• President of the CFA• Only military leader of Cnfederacy to be

placed in prison• Served two years

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• In response to Reconstruction, many Southerners embraced “the lost cause,” an image of Confederate soldiers battling to maintain Southern traditions and institutions.

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• How did the Civil War transofrm the South? What I really a “new” south? Why or why not?

• Were freed slaves better off in the South after the Civil War? Why or why not?

• What were the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments? Did they transofrm American society? Why or why not?

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• By the late 1860s some Southerns were already calling for a more diversified economy

• Slow shift from famrs to factories

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• Never monolithic – never a monopoly on racism, violence or one –party politics. Just seemed that way in comparison to the rest of the country.

• Only white Southerners have been defeated in way and had their territory occupied by enemy

• Until 1950, majority of blacks in US lived in the South• “Solid South” refers to no Republican presidential

candidate carrying the South between 1877-1920

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• No longer two separate nations – erased the Mason-Dixon line

• Southern economy had changed• Race relations had changed

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• Native of Atlanta, GA. • Correspondent of New York Herald• Conceptualized “new south”

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• Reconstruction of infrastructure– Railroads– Ports– Roads– communications

• Industrialization– Cotton– Iron– tobacco

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• 13th amendment: slavery punishable by law• 14th amendment: citizenship granted to any

person born in the US• 15th amendment: right for all adult males to

vote– This annoyed women

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• KKK• Redeemers• “Mississipi Plan”• “Grandfather Clause”• “Jim Crow” laws• Plessy v. Ferguson

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